Ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct!
Biology Friday, April 29, 2005 . This is a SciScoop post by Amgine
The birds inhabited a wide swath of American bottomlands and mountain pine forests until the latter part of the 1800s. They require a large feeding ground, and it is thought the expansion of towns and cities closed off their domain. They went extinct in Cuba during the same period. Ornithologists say each mating pair of Ivory-billed woodpeckers needs three square miles of forest to survive. Experts were reasonably certain that only 22 of them remained by 1938.
There have been several independent sightings of the bird in Arkansas over the last year, with one sighting even captured on videotape. In an effort to support the birds, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Nature Conservancy and other groups have joined to form the Big Woods Conservation Partnership to conserve 200,000 acres of forest habitat and rivers in the area during the next 10 years.
John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, told the Associated Press, “The bird captured on video is clearly an ivory-billed woodpecker. Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives.”
The story premiered Thursday in the online version of Science magazine.
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6 Responses to Ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct!
Anonymous
May 3rd, 2005 at 8:34 am
What with this new discovery, there are yet a lot of doubting Thomas’s around.
If in fact, there are photos, videos, etc. why can’t they be revealed ? Doing so could give a much needed boost to the environmental efforts in Arkansas and elsewhere in the overpopulated United States.
Anonymous
May 3rd, 2005 at 1:27 pm
The evidence for a living ivory billed woodpecker is slim. Rules of evidence have not yet been met. We do have word of mouth. Also, we have seen a video of a flying bird. Has anyone done any analysis of the size of the bird? Is there any motion analysis of the flying bird? Furthermore, the researchers that claim to have sighted the bird have interests in finding one and may have been afflicted by Wishful Thinking Syndrome (WTS).
The video we have seen so far is about as convincing as those purporting to show Bigfoot and Nessie.
Word of mouth IS an effective way to drum up publicity for both the purposes of raising money for protecting land and natural resources and for prompting tourism. We have heard stories of many lake monsters, such as Nessie (Loch Ness), Tessie (Tahoe), Champ (Champlaign) and Old Greeny (Cayuga). Such stories spur tourism and lend support to the notion that encroaching civilization endangers our ‘precious’ biodiversity, as seen in the form of serpants.
So, until I see better proof of an ivory billed woodpecker, I say “SHOW ME”! The onus of proof is not mine.
Anonymous
May 3rd, 2005 at 8:26 pm
hey they have released the video to the press. here’s a link. who cares about naysayers? this is every birder’s dream come true! yippee the big woody lives!!
Amgine
May 4th, 2005 at 8:06 am
The sound recordings of the hammer pattern matches that of historical recordings of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.
Of we could always hunt it down and kill it, to satisfy the doubting thomases.
Anonymous
May 4th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
There’s a video segment here at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The 4 second flight of the Ivory Bill can be seen there.
Requires QuickTime. Link is called “Video Press Release”
http://birds.cornell.edu/ivory/
July 22nd, 2005 at 2:54 am
Apparently, there is now some dispute over whether or not this was a genuine sighting or not, see:
Ivory Times